Glass and Slippers (but Not Together)
by Thisismyfangirlface
Summary: "It wasn't until Mai, amidst a desperate flail to try to catch the teapot and a strangled noise of alarm, saw the highly breakable household item falling towards her bare feet that she realized she had forgotten to put her shoes back on."


**Gosh I forgot how bad I am at author's notes lol**

**Okay this is my first Ghost Hunt fanfic (first fanfic on this account) and it's not really heavy on the plot, it's just a fluffy situation that occurred to me the other day but it was fun to write so here it is.**

**I don't own Ghost Hunt **

Glass and Slippers (but Not Together)

Mai Taniyama groaned quietly to herself before opening the door to the SPR office. For once she was a few minutes early and she couldn't have been more happy with that information because all she wanted to do was throw herself into her chair and not get up again for at least ten minutes. If she had been late then she would have immediately had to go make tea for her narcissistic boss.

After hanging her coat on the rack by the door and then accomplishing said desires of sitting in her regrettably could-be-more-comfortable chair the first thing she did was take her cursedly cute-but-painful shoes off. She had been in need of new flats for several weeks now and she had finally purchased a pair last night. Unfortunately she had yet to break them in so they were rubbing blisters and sore spots into her feet in multiple places. The day had not been pleasant for her feet.

Mai wiggled her newly freed toes and rolled her ankles in circles trying to stretch out her feet. She sighed and leaned back in her chair debating on whether or not the extra walk to the store for some bubble bath for a foot soak would be worth the worsened blisters. She was leaning towards 'no it wouldn't' when her thoughts were interrupted.

"Mai, tea," Naru's voice called from his office.

"Kay," she replied before getting up, her bare feet padding across the wooden floor on her way to the kitchenette.

Her tea prepping ritual was comforting and constant; fill the kettle, put it on the stove, grab a tray, three cups, and the teapot, then get the tea leaves ready. She'd say she could have done it in her sleep but there were so many other things that Mai was capable of doing in her sleep that she didn't want to jinx herself. She could do it blindfolded. She had no problems saying that.

Well… She could have done it blindfolded if the teapot wasn't out of her reach. Whoever washed and put it away last night after she left had put it up one shelf too high for her to reach. The other two people who worked in the office would have had no problems reaching the teapot and for some reason this irked her. She wasn't that much shorter than Naru why did one measly shelf make such a difference?

Mai let out a slightly irritated huff, only slightly because she knew whoever put the teapot away did not do it out of spite, and glanced at the office doors of the two dark haired men she worked with. If she asked either for help she knew they would assist her but she also knew that one would be highly inconvenienced but not say anything and the other would definitely say something and make snarky remarks about her height while he was at it.

Mai glanced back up at the teapot. If she stood on her tip toes and really stretched her arm she was sure she could reach it. Bracing one hand on the counter, she stood up on her toes and stretched her arm as high up as she could reach. Her fingers just brushed against the handle. Dang. Mai sank back down, took a breath, and reached again. This time she got her fingers around the handle, just barely, and let out a small cry of success. Unfortunately when she sunk back down she went too fast and the handle slipped from her grasp.

It wasn't until Mai, amidst a desperate flail to try to catch the teapot and a strangled noise of alarm, saw the highly breakable household item falling towards her bare feet that she realized she had forgotten to put her shoes back on.

Naru had been in desperate need of tea for the last half hour and had just been about to cave in and go make his own only to be pleasantly surprised when his assistant arrived a whole ten minutes earlier than she was scheduled to. It would be awkward to go make tea himself now with her sitting out there, but she didn't technically start for another ten minutes so he decided he could wait at least five.

After calling for tea the young CEO soon found himself engrossed in a file pertaining to a potential case when he was suddenly wrenched out of his train of thought by the sound of shattering glass and a rather comical noise that sounded an awful lot like his assistant. He waited a few moments before he stepped out of his office to investigate.

He walked into the kitchenette only to find Mai standing, barefoot, amidst a lot of broken glass that looked suspiciously like it was once his teapot. His assistant looked rather sheepish when she looked up and noticed him standing there.

"Uh… Hi, Naru," she started.

"Dare I ask?" Naru looked pointedly down at her feet then back up to her face.

Mai's face blanched as her mouth opened and closed a few times before she turned red and exploded. "I couldn't reach the teapot!"

Naru raised an eyebrow. "So you broke it?"

"It slipped!"

"Obviously."

Mai glared and started to say something when he interrupted her.

"Where are your shoes?" he asked, holding the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

"Oh I… They were hurting my feet so I took them off at my desk and I forgot to put them back on when I got up to make your tea," she mumbled. Now her face was red from embarrassment.

Naru sighed before striding over to her, glass crunching under the soles of his shoes.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he kept getting closer to her. Instinctually she wanted to take a few steps back but the shattered teapot around her feet was a strong deterrent of that desire.

"Well you're stuck aren't you? You can't very well walk out of this mess so someone has to get you out of the way until it's cleaned up." Without saying anything more he supported her back and scooped her legs out from under her to carry her a few feet away from the majority of the used-to-be teapot.

Of course Lin would choose this moment in time to walk out of his office.

"I was on the phone when I heard the noise. Is everything-," he stopped when he saw them; Mai's face instantly going red while Naru, of course, remained unaffected.

"Mai dropped the teapot," he answered Lin's unfinished question. "When it's convenient could you please go buy a new one? It doesn't have to match," He sat the still blushing, and, quite frankly, amusingly dumbfounded Mai down on the counter.

Lin nodded before walking over to the door, grabbing his coat, and taking his leave of the SPR office.

Mai came out of her shocked state when Naru crouched down in front of her to inspect her feet.

"W-what are you doing!?" she exclaimed pulling her feet up so they were against the edge of the counter but not on it.

Naru sighed. "I was trying to see where you were hurt, Idiot, you're bleeding."

Mai blinked and looked down. Sure enough she had a small cut on the side of her foot. "Oh…" she trailed off lamely.

Naru stood, grabbed a paper towel and handed it to her. "Here put pressure on it for a minute," he said before walking off.

Mai did as she was told and followed his movements with her eyes. Surely he knew the first aid kit was in the cabinet to the left of her head. Where was he going?

Her question was answered when he returned with a broom and set to sweeping up the broken teapot pieces.

Mai tried not to stare. She really did, but there was something almost amusing at the sight of Naru the narcissist in his black dress clothes with a broom cleaning up someone else's mess.

"Um," Mai started to say thanks but stopped when Naru looked up at her from where he was sweeping the glass into the dustpan.

"What?" He stood and strode over to the trashcan.

"Nothing. Never mind."

Naru seemed to accept this. After he threw the broken glass away he walked back over to her and got the first aid kit down.

"Are you going to freak out if I look at your feet again?" he asked without looking at her.

"N-no!" Mai replied, face flushing in embarrassment.

Naru didn't say anything as he moved her hand and the paper towel away from the cut on her foot. He quickly cleaned it and, after making sure there wasn't any glass in the cut he put a bandage over it.

Mai was ready to hop down off the counter after that but Naru continued looking at her feet.

"What're you doing now?" she asked.

"Wondering how on Earth you have so many injuries on your feet. You didn't try to walk around before I got out here, did you?"

"I'm not stupid, Naru!" she pouted when he raised an eyebrow at her but said nothing. She sighed before continuing. "Those are from my shoes. I just got them last night so they're still stiff and they hurt which is why I didn't have them on when I dropped the stupid teapot."

"If they hurt so much then why did you buy them?" Naru asked grabbing more bandages out of the first aid kit and beginning to put them over the forming blisters on her feet.

"Okay 1: they won't hurt after I get them broken in, and 2: I've needed new shoes for a while now. Plus they're really cute."

Naru rolled his eyes but decided against saying anything.

Mai gave her best effort to pretend she didn't feel the blush creeping into her cheeks as she watched the almost meticulous way Naru checked to make sure he didn't leave any potential blisters uncovered.

"That will stop your shoes from rubbing your skin raw," he said.

"I know what band aids do," she defended half-heartedly. She would have felt more insulted if it weren't for the fact that Naru had spoken softly, almost tenderly.

"Yes, I'm sure you're very well acquainted with the functions of several types of medical treatments, Klutz."

Now Mai was annoyed. "Listen here, you narcissistic little-," she broke off when Naru looked up into her eyes, a playful glint hidden in the depth of his own blue irises.

"Yes?"

Mai gaped for a moment- was he smiling?

Naru raised an eyebrow at her, prompting her to continue.

"Just- I-," she sputtered for a moment. "Thanks," she said quickly.

Naru nodded before offering her a hand to help her get down from her perch on the counter. That was as close to 'you're welcome' as she was going to get.

Lin returned a few moments later with a teapot and a stepping stool.

Mai was not amused.

**There you have it! **

**A big thanks to Nerdyghostclub on Tumblr for reassuring me that Mai is in fact a lot shorter than Naru (and therefore much shorter than Lin). I wasn't sure how big the height difference was so I was a little worried about how that affected the plot. **

**Also I hope I did okay with keeping everyone in character. Personal headcanon that after this incident a note card found itself taped on the door to the cabinet that said 'Tea making equipment is not to be put away any higher than the first shelf.' Monk laughs every time he reads it.**

**Anyway thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Have a lovely day!**


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